Fault
by Mercury Soul
Summary: "He was screwed. Unless this miraculously went away, he was gonna spend the rest of his increasingly uncool existence hung up on a girl who probably viewed him more like an oversized butter knife than an actual human man." SoMa, three-parter.
1. His

**Author's Note-** I'm not sure what this is, but I apologize in advance because I don't know how to feel about it. I'm still getting a feel for these characters, I guess? Anyway, this is a three-parter, part two should be up tomorrow-ish, and part three by the end of the weekend (ideally).

* * *

**His**

* * *

It was probably avoidable. If he had just been paying attention, he might have caught this early, seen the signs, nipped it in the bud. He isn't sure if that would have made things better or worse, but _not_ letting himself get to this place would probably have been smart. But then again, he's Soul Eater Evans, and no amount of cool can make up for the fact that he's a _fucking idiot_ sometimes. Especially when it comes to one Maka Albarn, Scythemeister; she's the smart one, not him. And she makes him crazy.

That was the heart of the problem. Bad enough they're essentially tethered at the soul, but doid she have to be on his mind 24/7 as well? It's a little ridiculous, and he was becoming increasingly reliant on his ability to hold a poker face. He might be clinging to his composure by a thread, but at least he didn't have to let anybody _know_ that. (Well, Tsubaki probably knew, but she was too perceptive for _her_ own good or _his_ mental health.)

If he spends an entire afternoon listening to her humming while she putters around the apartment and wondering if she realizes it's a tune she picked up from him, that's his business. When she drags him out to the training grounds for solo work, all he has to do is make sure he grumbles about it loudly enough and no one has to know he secretly loves those extra practice sessions, just the two of them with their souls chiming in perfect harmony. If the reason he flunked Stein's latest test is because five minutes into the exam he got caught up in staring at the way the eraser end of Maka's pencil would get tangled up in her hair and make her right pigtail sway every couple of minutes because she was bent so close to the paper... well, no one would really be that surprised that he flunked anyway. Maka cared more about his grades than he did most days, anyway.

Soul resonance has emotional side effects. It's a simple fact. Sharing soul-space with someone puts you into a uniquely vulnerable position, and it's not uncommon for occasional romantic inclinations to crop up, especially if a weapon/meister pair reach a deeper level of resonance than they had achieved before. Most of the time it's short-term, just chemicals in your brain going haywire from your soul wavelength adjusting. That had been the source of the brief, bizarre dalliance between Kid and Liz (seriously, no one could ever convince Soul that hadn't been _weird_, and he was pretty sure both parties involved agreed with him once it was over). Hell, even Ox and Harvar had a weird man-crush thing going on for a week or two a couple years back, before the effect had faded and left them both ridiculously embarrassed.

So, yeah, when this had started he hadn't caught it early. He'd noticed right away, of course. He had first caught himself doing that deeply uncool creepy stalker staring thing one particular morning when his meister- _damn her_- decided to parade around the kitchen in a long t-shirt (his!) and not a whole lot else. His reaction had been a little more visceral than what you'd expect from a typical guy who had an admittedly very pretty girl half-naked right in front of him. A hard-on could be expected, but the stupid fluttery feeling in his chest had not been.

He hadn't thought it was a big deal. It was normal. So what if he had a little bit of a crush on his meister? These things happened to the best of them, and with his and Maka's unusually high resonance rate, it wasn't surprising that it would happen to one of them sooner or later. He'd spend a couple weeks blushing around her and maybe taking a few more cold showers than usual, and eventually whatever neuron misfire was causing it would settle down and things would go back to normal.

Except _it hadn't gone away_. The staring he swore he absolutely could not help for the life of him, the constant struggle not to go pink if she smiled at him (and thank Death he's not prone to blushing much or this would have gotten embarrassing fast), the constant heart palpitations, for fuck's sake... it didn't clear up after a few awkward weeks. If anything, it got _worse_.

The realization that his newfound romantic inclinations toward his partner weren't going away had been horrifying. The realization that came about two months after that that his newfound romantic inclinations weren't even _remotely_ newfound was even worse.

Maybe if Patty weren't such a little paparazzo-in-training who loved to document every single group outing with a photo or sixty, he wouldn't have had the occasion to see a photo of them from a few years back. It had been taken maybe a couple months after the battle with Asura, on some group outing he couldn't remember the details of any more. His arm had been thrown around Maka's shoulders, she had been laughing (for an amateur, Patty was strikingly good at capturing the moment), and he had been watching her with an expression that he could not describe any other way except 'besotted.'

And that had been the start of a slow slide into the inevitable realization that this stupid crush (which was actually something a whole lot bigger and more important than a crush, but one big admission at a time, okay?) had started actual _years_ ago and lasted this long with no signs of fading even the slightest bit. He didn't know how to feel about it. On the one hand, several rather significant aspects of his life made marginally more sense. On the other hand, at least when he'd been ignorant about what his own stupid heart was doing behind his back, he'd been able to keep his cool at least a little bit.

Fat chance of that now. Strictly speaking, he knew he wasn't as obvious as he felt like he was (at least, he _hoped_ not!), but that wasn't saying much, considering he felt like he was walking around with a damn neon sign painted on his forehead.

If it had been any other girl this had happened with, he'd have just manned up and done something about it. Kissed her or asked her out or whatever the hell. But this wasn't just a _girl_, this was _Maka_, and Maka (as usual) made everything a whole lot more complicated.

Just figured, right? He had to go and fall for the one girl he had about a snowball's chance in hell with. For one thing, she was his _meister_. And his roommate. And his best friend. They had a good thing going, and had for the better part of a decade. All of that was _important_, dammit, and he didn't wanna fuck it up.

Less important, but probably more painful to think about, was the fact that Maka had made it crystal clear that she didn't see him that way. She wasn't lining up the guys for dates, but she didn't need to to let him know the door wasn't just closed, it was dead-bolted shut. I mean, how many books to the cranium did a guy have to take before he got the message? He knew Maka loved him platonically- if he asked she'd probably say something nausea-inducing along the lines of "like a brother"- but last time he checked, girls with a violent streak tried to curb those tendencies around guys they liked romantically. Right? Shinigami knows Liz didn't beat up anybody if she wanted to get into their pants.

So yeah, he was screwed. Unless this miraculously went away (and with every day that went by with him still feeling like the butt of some enormous cosmic joke played by the most deranged Cupid of all time, that seemed less and less likely), he was gonna spend the rest of his increasingly uncool existence hung up on a girl who probably viewed him more like an oversized butter knife than an actual human man.

It wasn't hard to hide it during resonance. In battle they both had bigger things to worry about than his feelings, and he was focused on that. As long as she stayed out of the Black Room, everything would be fine and she'd never be any the wiser, and their partnership would stay intact. And that, right now, was Soul's ultimate goal. Maintain the status quo, preserve the partnership, because it might not be everything he wanted, but it was still pretty damn good and probably better than he deserved anyway.

He still got a lot of partnership requests, and ignored them. He still got a lot of requests of a more personal nature and... well, to be honest, sometimes he was tempted _not_ to ignore those. There was part of him that was still self-deluded enough to think that maybe all he needed to cure this was a distraction. The greater part of him, though, couldn't go through with it. It wouldn't be fair to whatever poor girl whose time he took up, and leading people on wasn't classy. Wouldn't work, anyway.

He did, however, start spending less of his free time with her. Used to be that whenever they weren't on a mission or out with their friends, it was invariably just the two of them hanging out, occasionally with totally innocent invasion of personal space involved. Well, innocent when it was her throwing her legs over his lap. When he threw a "friendly" arm around her shoulders because he couldn't go one more second without touching her or he was going to go insane... maybe not quite so much. Now, though, he tried to avoid spending quite that much time alone with her. As much as he loved her company (as weird as that sounded considering how often he suffered encyclopaedia-induced concussions while in it), he knew he needed to give himself some space. He started spending more time hanging around with Black*Star and Kirikou. He started spending more time alone, combing the record stores of Death City for rare recordings or just plain bumming around the city.

Maybe it was a masochistic impulse, putting space between them, but he _needed_ it. It was kinda ironic that Maka, who had always kept him sane when the black blood was singing in his veins and his mind was scattered and far away, was now the cause of him losing grip on reason in a rather different way. But that was how it was. He was stuck in limbo, unable to act on his feelings because that would alienate his partner but unable to get rid of them either, and to deal with that he had to distance himself a little. Not a lot, not so much that she would notice something was wrong, but enough that he could stop and breathe and think about video games and Kirikou's far more mundane lady troubles and creative ways to kill Blair if she didn't stop bugging him and just generally not feel like quite such a pathetic sap for awhile.

It was a good system. He couldn't help but wonder how long it would last.


	2. Hers

**Author's Note-** As promised, part 2 is here, not quite as early as I had hoped (a few unexpected things came up, my apologies). Bleh, I'm not super happy with this chapter (or this story in general, but I wanted to contribute something to this fandom so yay for generic fic being generic). But thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, followed, and favorited! I appreciate your support so much.

Oh and just for clarification, although it isn't really relevant, this is vaguely manga-based although I'm not adhering to any specific timeline. Post-canon, but other than that feel free to make up your own mind.

* * *

**Hers**

* * *

"I think Soul is dating someone."

And really, all things considered, Maka couldn't even bring herself to be bitter about it. She wanted to be. She really, really wanted to be irrational and angry and blame him for the fact that this particular revelation put enough of a knot in her stomach to make her feel physically sick. It wasn't his fault, though.

It was hers.

Well, maybe it was a little bit his fault. Maka did a very good job of keeping people- specifically people of the male persuasion- away from her, emotionally speaking. There was too much risk involved in letting a man get too close, and she _knew_ that. She'd listened to her mother crying alone in her cold bed too often not to know. It was a rule: don't let a man in your heart if you don't want it broken.

Maka had exceptions to her No Boys Allowed rule. First was Black*Star, her oldest friend, and someone she had known long before her rule had even gone into effect. He wasn't really A Boy so much as he was a brother, of sorts... albeit a bit of a noisy, annoying one. Although from what she'd heard, maybe all brothers were like that. And of course there was Kid, but Kid was a shinigami first and a boy second, to her. He had her respect, her admiration, her friendship, her fealty if he asked it of her, but all of that was safe. Both Black*Star and Kid were exactly that: _safe_. Maka knew from long years of experience in a dangerous and complicated world that although friends could make you cry if they weren't careful and losing them hurt like hell, they couldn't worm inside your heart quite the way a lover could. You gave little pieces of yourself to your friends, never your whole being the way romantic love apparently demanded.

And that was where the third exception- and the only one she felt she might regret making- to Maka's rule came in.

Soul had been an amazing surprise in every imaginable way since the very beginning. He was a walking contradiction and a puzzle she had been unable to stop trying to figure out. He was easygoing (or at least tried to be) and good with people, yet Maka realized early on that he was a complete introvert. He was a rather dark, complicated person (probably more than anyone but herself actually knew), but his favorite season was summer and he loved bright colors like orange and yellow more than he was likely to admit to. He was every bit as comfortable in a crisp suit and tie as he was in his well-worn leather jacket, and she was _still_ trying to figure out where he had learned to waltz like that. He could be surly if provoked and he teased her relentlessly, but she knew he had a heart of gold and he was the most reliable partner and the most loyal friend she could ever have asked for.

He really was the best guy, trustworthy as no other man ever had been. If she hadn't known it before, their experiences in the Book of Eibon had cemented for her that she could- and did- trust Soul implicitly. He wouldn't leave her or betray her. Soul was no Spirit Albarn, and she knew it. It maybe wasn't that surprising, then, that Maka had gone right ahead and fallen for him.

Soul was only teasing when he said so, but she really _was_ an idiot.

She couldn't have said when it began, but it was too late to stop it now. She had gone and fallen for the best boy in the world, and the worst possible choice for her to have feelings for. He was her partner, her roommate, her best friend, and if she couldn't find a way to keep a lid on these feelings, she was going to screw that up.

There was a part of her that wanted to throw caution to the wind. The part that made her drop things when he would wander around the apartment wearing only a towel after a shower, the part that made her insist on extra practice sessions just so she could spend time alone with him, the part that just about melted when he gave her one of those rare, soft smiles... yeah, that part _really_ wanted to just screw it all and kiss him, because she was pretty sure that would be really nice.

It was a part of herself that she couldn't afford to listen to, though. Maka didn't have a whole lot of people in her life. Her mother, much though she loved her, was absent and her father, much though she (grudgingly) loved him, was not to be relied upon (he was the reason her rule was in place, after all). She had a surrogate brother and sister in Black*Star and Tsubaki, and more recent friends in Kim and Jackie, Kid and the Thompsons, and Kirikou and Harvar (she would _not_ admit that Ox was any friend of hers under threat of torture). She even had whatever bizarre relationship it was that she had with Blair. But Soul was bigger, more significant, more important than any of those relationships.

A close friendship between weapon and partner was to be expected. For a weapon/meister pair to be compatible, there had to be an element of emotional compatibility involved, or the resonance would be thrown off. But what she shared with Soul was... well, it had always felt like it was somehow _more_, even before she'd realized that she'd gone and made the idiotic move of falling for him. He was always there for her in a way no one ever had been, and their lives were so impossibly entangled in each other that she couldn't possibly separate herself without damaging something critical in the process.

If she followed whatever instinct was screaming for her to jump him next time he decided that jeans and nothing else was appropriate attire for the living room, she was going to do exactly that. Soul wasn't attracted to her, plain and simple. He'd made it all too clear. Taunts of "tiny tits" and "knobby knees" and other alliterative insults that only served to remind her that even when he was being a jerk Soul was cleverer than he'd like to cop to, were a painful reminder of this fact. She was just about the exact opposite of what Soul wanted in a girl.

It was too little, too late for her. Maka was going to have her heart broken and she knew it. But there was a chance she could get through this without completely destroying the most important relationship in her life in the process. That was what had led to her sitting on Tsubaki's couch and purging her mixed-up emotions in a bid to keep them from building up pressure. The last thing she needed was to snap when Soul was being infuriating (which was often) and blurting out things she didn't want to admit to him. She'd confided in Tsubaki fairly quickly once she realized her own feelings towards her partner, and since then they'd spent more than a few nights talking through it. It helped a lot, actually, and Tsubaki was very good at helping her gain a clearer idea of her situation (although her sweetness and desire to make everyone happy meant that Maka was less inclined to trust her optimism than she would have if Soul had been the one filling his usual position of putting things in perspective for her). The chance to vent was therapeutic.

"What?" Tsubaki asked, looking thoroughly surprised at Maka's certainty that her partner was romantically entangled elsewhere. "Why do you think that?"

Maka sighed miserably. "He's gone a lot lately," she said. "Not just every so often, either, it's _all_ the time. Some of the time he's hanging out with Black*Star or Liz or whoever, but sometimes he just goes out for hours and doesn't come home until late and as far as I know he's not with anybody we know and I feel like_ such a stalker_ because I pay attention to when he comes and goes and argh!" She buried her face in her hands, frustrated with herself.

Tsubaki rested a hand on her friend's shoulder sympathetically. "I'm sure it can't be what you think. If Soul were dating someone, he would tell you."

"Would he?" Maka asked. "He's such a private person. A lot of the time what's going on in his head is a mystery even to me!"

The older girl shook her head emphatically. "No, Maka, you must be wrong."

"How do you know?"

Tsubaki smiled. "For two reasons. First, you are right that Soul is a very private person. He keeps many things to himself, but I think if something like that had happened, he would tell you, at least. Second, I haven't noticed any change in how he behaves. If Soul had a girlfriend, wouldn't he be more cheerful than usual?"

Maka couldn't help the tiny smirk that crossed her face. "That's probably true." And it really was. Soul was a person of extremes, occasionally in unexpected or (seemingly) contradictory ways, but she was pretty sure that if Tsubaki had a point. If Soul had fallen in love with someone (someone prettier, someone easier to deal with), he would probably be happier. "Come to think of it," she remarked slowly, "he's actually been _more_ moody than usual lately."

"There, you see?" Tsubaki said encouragingly. "This idea that Soul is in love with someone else is just silly. He wouldn't do that to you."

Maka shrugged uncomfortably. It was true that Soul would never abandon her for another meister, nor would he willingly end their friendship, but she was also pretty sure that he wouldn't see dating someone as a betrayal of their relationship. And really, it wasn't. If Soul wanted to date, she had no romantic claims on him. Even if it would break her just exactly like she'd always known a man with control of her heart would have the power to do, it was no one's fault but her own.

* * *

**A/N2-** Tsubaki is hard to write someone shoot me or something. How do I dialogue. (I'm ordinarily very good at dialogue, I swear.)


	3. Theirs

**Author's Note-** Aaaaand this is the end of Fault. I intended to post it much sooner but I had unexpected trouble with it and kept fiddling with it until I reached the conclusion that it just wasn't gonna get better. It's been awhile since I've written a scene in omniscient/plural POV and it gave me some troubles, so if I'm lucky, I didn't cock it up too badly. I was going for equal blending of perspective but I think I may have just made it jittery. Eh, maybe I'll revise this piece someday so it sucks less.

Regardless of my dubious "skill," I hope you've enjoyed this rather plotless bit of semi-introspective nonsense. If you've somehow enjoyed my writing, stay tuned. I have more Soul Eater fanfiction in the pipeline including my already-begun long term project, _Legend of the Scythe-Meister_, and a shorter piece (title and release date TBD) in which I shamelessly put Soul through the emotional wringer because when I love a character I have that authorial need to make their lives as hard as possible.

*shameless self-promotion* *shoujo sparkles*

**Megan26-** Since I can't reply to your review privately I'll respond here. Thanks so much for taking the time to leave feedback (and I totally agree about Soul. *sighs sadly* The unrealistic standard set by fictional men is the reason I am still single).

* * *

**Theirs**

* * *

Soul and Maka were very different people. Strikingly so, in fact. It was a part of why their partnership worked so well. They complemented each other and their strengths made up for the flaws and faults in their partner. This wasn't to say they were completely different. They had all the important things in common, the things that were necessary for their close friendship to flourish, and the peripheral differences only served to keep their partnership interesting. There was one trait they shared, however, that was the cause of most of the trouble in their relationship.

They were both unerringly, astonishingly, monumentally _stubborn_.

Once an idea had taken root in Maka's head she would cling to it like a pit bull with its teeth sunk into a particularly tasty trouser leg, ignoring any and all evidence to the contrary until things had reached the point when even she had to admit she was being ridiculous. Soul was far less likely to dig his heels in, and far less prone to fixating on preconceived notions, but when he had made up his mind it was equally impossible to budge him.

Naturally, with one of them positive she was wholly unattractive to her partner and the other convinced he'd single-handedly destroyed any chance he had of winning her heart years ago, romantic headway was at a standstill. The Eater/Albarn household was a minefield of sexual tension and uncertainty.

It maybe wasn't surprising, then, that things came to a breaking point between them. With frustrations filling up behind the dams they had built, it was inevitable that sooner or later that pressure would have to be released.

* * *

If you asked him afterwards, he would say it was entirely her fault for provoking an argument in the first place. If you asked her afterwards, she would say it was entirely his fault for having the gall to look so unfairly good in his leather jacket and a pair of jeans that did rather spectacular things for his ass, and then trying to slouch out the door without even saying goodbye.

"Where are you going?"

She was actually rather proud of the way she kept her eyes fixed on the book in her lap, rather than looking up at him like she actually gave a damn about the answer to her question. _Casual, be casual. You definitely_ haven't_ been fretting for weeks about where he disappears off to in the evenings. Nope. Not a bit._

"Eh, just around," her partner replied.

It was the same answer she'd gotten when she asked him yesterday. And on Tuesday. And Monday. And Sunday. And most of last week. He was avoiding giving her any direct answers and it made her nervous. She wanted to trust what Tsubaki said and believe that what she suspected was just paranoia and her daddy issues talking, but Soul was making it really _really_ hard to stay positive.

"Want some company?"

Since giving himself some space from her was kind of the _point_, Soul was quick to turn her down. Maybe a little too quick, since Maka actually looked up from her book for once. He hadn't been expecting that.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, and for the life of him he couldn't tell what her expression meant (which was weird because she was usually ridiculously easy to read).

"Nah, just... um, no. Everything's fine." _Nice one, Eater. Way to_ not_ sound sneaky_.

And now she was actually setting the book aside! That was... not normal.

"Are you sure?" she asked, looking at him earnestly, even... pleadingly? _What?_ What was going on?

Maka waited a few moments for a reply, but Soul didn't answer. He just looked at her, expression unchanged except that his eyebrows had drawn together slightly, and it frustrated her. Why did he have to be so annoyingly inscrutable all the time? Just _once_, couldn't he be easy to understand?

When his silence stretched out a few more breaths, she added, "If something's going on, you can talk to me, you know." She'd said it before, and no doubt she'd say it again, and he took her up on the offer exactly _never_. Ordinarily she was content with the certainty that he knew the door was open, even if he didn't avail himself of it, but today... maybe not so much. She was tense and curious and sexually frustrated and worrying herself miserable and she was sick and tired of Soul never, _ever_ opening up to her, not really!

He shrugged. "Nothing's going on."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really."

"Then why are you never home any more?" she asked.

Despite himself, Soul flinched. He'd hoped she wouldn't notice. "Sorry," he said in a tone lightly laced with sarcasm. "Didn't realize I needed to give you my itinerary."

Might have been the wrong thing to say, if his meister's flaring nostrils were anything to go by. "You don't," she snapped. "Excuse me for taking an interest in your life."

"Okay, why the hell are you being so hostile all of a sudden?" He was baffled. He supposed it had been a long shot to hope that Maka wouldn't notice that he'd been avoiding her, but her reaction to it was confusing. He didn't have to resonate with her to recognize the set of her shoulders and the thin line of her mouth that meant she was as tense as the wires of a well-tuned baby grand.

"I'm not being hostile!"

"Yeah you are, Maka. What gives?"

The flare of panic (this was _not_ an explanation she wanted to give, _why_ had she started this conversation again?) made her reply more forceful than she had intended. "I'm _not_ being hostile! And what do you care, anyway? It's not like you're ever around, are you?"

There was more to this than met the eye. Something was actually bothering her, and Soul knew from long experience that letting Maka fester in her own thoughts was never a good thing, because she had a tendency to come to ridiculous conclusions if he didn't step in and give her some perspective. It also didn't help that he was pretty sure he was being attacked. So even though every instinct he had was telling him this was probably gonna end with him saying something really stupid, he stepped away from the door and back to where she was seated.

"And just what does that mean?" he asked, just a little defensively.

"Nothing."

He wanted to tear out his hair at the petulant tone in her voice. "Maka, what the hell? Are you actually trying to pick a fight with me right now?"

This was stupid. _She_ was stupid. She knew it, and the rational part of her knew that she was only acting this way because she was insecure and jealous. She wasn't doing so well at listening to the rational part of her right now, though. Even when her mind was telling her to shut up before she did any real damage, her mouth seemed to be on autopilot and her heartbeat was too loud in her ears.

"Well at least this way you're actually talking to me!" she snarked.

"I talk to you plenty!"

She snorted. "Yeah, _sure_. When we're on missions, or in class. I swear you spend more time with _Ox_ than you do with me these days!"

Soul literally bit his tongue to stop the snappish retort he wanted to shoot back at her, and immediately regretted it.

_Okay, take a step back_.

He and Maka fought a lot. Well, not really fought, per se. It was rare for them to have an actual serious fight, but they bickered and pushed each others buttons. There wasn't any real anger or negative feeling behind it, usually just a little mild annoyance, and it was comfortable and familiar and just how they operated. This, though... there was a bite to her words that wasn't usually there. She was actually upset about something and was taking it out on him for whatever reason. He'd seen her do this a few times before, provoking other people into a fight when something was bothering her and she couldn't make herself address the issue directly. He should know, he was the usual target. But it wasn't going to do any good for him to rise to the bait. Just this once he was gonna try to act like a fucking adult and take a step back instead of letting her get under his skin.

_Deep breath. Don't yell at her. You are not four years old, you can behave like it. Probably._

"Maka, seriously. What's this about?" he asked, in a marginally calmer tone. Thinking that it might help if he wasn't glaring down at her, he sat next to her on the couch. "And don't say it's nothing because you and I both know better."

"Think whatever you want," she muttered. Feeling thoroughly ashamed of herself, she grabbed for her book and attempted a humiliated retreat.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Soul was having none of that, and he pushed the novel out of her reach before she could get her hands on it. Ignoring her noisy protest, he said, "You know that whole "you can talk to me" thing? Two-way street, Maka."

Fully aware that her face was doing its best impression of a tomato, she avoided his eyes and stared down at her knees instead. Her knees might be knobbly, but at least they wouldn't laugh at her for being an idiot. "It's stupid," she mumbled.

"So?"

The silence went on. Soul waited, because usually if he was quiet for long enough she'd just spit it out, but apparently today Maka Albarn wasn't inclined to share with the rest of the class because she just sat there, avoiding his eyes with an embarrassed flush creeping across just about every visible part of her skin.

Fine. She didn't want to tell him? That was her business.

He tried not to think about the fact that she would pick a fight with him but wouldn't talk to him hurt like hell.

"Whatever," he muttered, and got to his feet.

Watching him walk across the apartment, Maka's tongue felt glued to the roof of her mouth and her heart was beating way too hard and she wanted to stop him, but even with a vocabulary of 75,000 words she couldn't seem to find the ones she needed.

He was halfway out the door when he heard her whisper, "I just really miss you."

He froze. Turned. Stared at her. "Huh?" he asked stupidly.

She was still avoiding his eyes and she was still bright red, but she repeated, a little louder: "I miss you."

_Progress. Okay._

The dam had broken and the words tumbled out before Maka could properly sandbag her stream of consciousness. "It just seems like you're gone all the time, you know? And I know it's none of my business because it's your life and you can do what you want, but I can't help it. You go off to _wherever_ and I worry which is stupid because I know you can take care of yourself and Tsubaki says I'm being paranoid but I'm pretty sure you have a girlfriend so I guess I'm just freaking out a little because I don't think I'm ready to deal with that yet and did I mention it was _stupid?_"

Soul blinked.

Maka felt herself flush even darker. Well, she'd gone and put her whole hand on the table now. Falling for Soul had been stupid. All but _telling him that_ because she had the emotional stability of your typical mental patient these days... well, they were going to have to invent a whole new word for this level of stupid. Maybe she could help them come up with it.

She'd given Soul a lot of information to process in a relatively short amount of time. He wasn't totally sure what to make of her ramble except that apparently his attempt to give himself some space had not only been noticed, it had actually upset her. Well, _shit_. Now he just felt like an ass.

Okay, damage control time. He chose to focus on the most laughably ridiculous thing first, and he'd deal with the rest of it later. "Why would you think I have a girlfriend?" he asked, shutting the door mindlessly.

She mumbled something so lowly the only word he caught was "stupid."

"Yeah, yeah, you're an idiot," he said, doing his best to keep the fond note out of his voice, walking back to the couch and sitting down next to her again. "I definitely don't have a girlfriend... unless you're volunteering for the job?"

He hadn't meant to say it. He'd definitely been _thinking_ it, in that wistful never-gonna-happen kind of way, and somehow it had slipped out and _oh dear sweet Death_ please_ let her think he was joking!_

Her reaction wasn't what he had expected, though. Instead of laughing (or alternately realizing how much he actually meant it and looking at him like he'd grown a second head or something), she turned away from him.

"Don't be an ass, Soul."

Maka's tone was... not right. Her shoulders were slumped and she was all curled up on herself and she sounded so _sad_. For the first time in what felt like years, he was having a hard time reading her, because this reaction didn't make sense at all.

"I know we usually do the friendly banter thing, but... just this once, can you please just leave it alone?" she asked softly. "Don't tease me. Not about this."

There was something he was missing. Something big. "What are you talking about?" he asked, totally nonplussed.

"Look, I know you're cool and you're used to having all kinds of girls throwing themselves at you, and I know we laugh about that sometimes," she muttered, "but I'm not them, okay? This isn't something we can just joke about, at least not now. Maybe someday, but for now I'm just trying really hard not to let this screw up our partnership, so please don't make it harder for me."

Soul was not stupid. He could read between the lines and piece together what was implied. That didn't mean it made any sense, though.

"Are you... Maka, are you trying to say you have feelings for me?" he asked awkwardly, unable to believe those words had actually come out of his mouth.

Getting the feeling that he might not have recognized her initial slip-up for what it was and feeling thoroughly embarrassed (seriously, she could have avoided making even more of a fool of herself if she had just kept her mouth shut!), Maka nodded miserably. "Mm-hm," she mumbled.

"Oh _jeez_," Soul groaned, and she flinched. Yep, all the work she'd done to keep this to herself and not let it get awkward, and here things were... about to get awkward.

"You mean I spent all these months _avoiding you_ so that I wouldn't do something stupid like kiss you because I forget that I'm not allowed to do that, for _no good reason?_"

He was actually a little bit genuinely frustrated. Keeping his distance from her had let him keep his cool, but it had also been hell. Deliberately spending so little time with the one person whose company he never got tired of and who had always accepted him unconditionally had been rough. And to know that all that could have been avoided... yeah, he actually was kind of ticked about that. Mostly, though, he was just focusing on how annoyed that made him so he wouldn't do something incredibly uncool. Like doing a victory dance. Or running to the window and screaming to all of Death City that _Maka Albarn liked him_.

Especially because she was suddenly looking at him and her eyes were huge and hopeful and surprised and it was occurring to him that she'd been every bit as much in the dark as he was. She'd had no idea how he felt, either.

"We're such _idiots_," he muttered with a shake of his head and a sharp grin that he flashed in her direction as he tried not to laugh at the irony.

Maka was trying to process what she'd just been told. And no matter how many times she conjured up her mothers image as a prime example of what happened to meisters who fell in love with their weapons, it wasn't enough to suppress the swelling bubble of elation in her chest because _Soul felt the same way_. Just to be sure, though, she asked, "You too, then?"

He nodded, and she was pretty sure she'd never seen him smile that widely before. Wow. Oh wow. She was really glad she was sitting down all of a sudden, because if his regular crooked smirk made her knees go weak... _well!_

"Wow," she whispered.

"Get over here," he said with a jerk of his head.

Even though she'd actually told him she had feelings for him, Soul had to admit that he was still a little surprised when she actually scooted across the gap between them and curled up next to him. He wrapped his arm around her and it wasn't really any different from any other time they'd sat like this, except it _was_.

"So," he said, trying to sound like he wasn't giddy and nervous and about ten thousand other seriously non-cool things, "you remember what I said earlier about not having a girlfriend?"

"Yeah?"

"Does this mean that's changed?"

She turned her face into his shoulder to try and hide her own beaming smile. "Only if you stop avoiding me," she teased.

"I don't think that's gonna be a problem," he said, and his tone made her look up to meet those striking eyes of his, "since the only reason I was avoiding you was so I wouldn't be tempted to do this..."

And then his lips were on hers and Maka promptly decided that Soul was right. The fact that they hadn't been doing this all along was incontrovertible proof that they were both the biggest idiots in the state of Nevada.


End file.
